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Pacific Business News (Honolulu) - July 14, 2003

IN DEPTH: 2003 HAWAII'S FASTEST 50

Health-care company grows with a passion

Kristen Sawada
Pacific Business News

Gigi Abel discovered at age 50 a passion for helping the elderly and disabled find homes.

"I really didn't discover this until I was 50, then it grabbed hold of me and started driving me," she said. "I just love working in community-based care. I love allowing people to stay at home as opposed to going into an institution."

Abel, who previously worked in catering, went into nursing at age 40, worked at home health agencies and fell in love with geriatric nursing case management.

In 1999, she started Abel Case Management Inc., No. 3 on PBN's Fastest 50 list for 2003, posting revenues of $1.9 million in 2002, up from $1.5 million in 2001 and about $400,000 in 2000.

The company -- with five employees -- works mostly with the state's poor and disabled Medicaid recipients, placing them in alternative foster families, which provide home-based health care 24 hours a day.

"My job is to find a good match, find a family that would meet their needs," she said. "It's great if they can meld their social and cultural history. The program can't keep pace with the need."

Caregivers, who are mostly from the Philippines, are the company's greatest asset and it took awhile to develop a team, loyalty and strong relationships in the industry, she said.

"I'm out in their homes learning their kids' names, learning what village they come from in the Philippines," Abel said. "Going into business is very scary but I think my passion was so great that I was really able to get important support from people close to me."

With Hawaii's elderly population expected to grow immensely over the next 10 years, the state has a huge need for alternative care solutions.

Abel embraces competition and says most of her competitors in the industry support each other, share advice and are very collegial.

The company, which doesn't advertise, gets customers mostly through referrals because of Abel's reputation in the community, said Teresa Costales, vice president of operations at Abel Case Management Inc.

"Because of her passion and her ability to relate to people in all industries, whether it be social workers, in hospitals, clients or clients' families, Gigi has the ability to relate to them in a way that makes our company a place where people want to refer to," Costales said.

Foster care home programs cost between $2,000 and $3,500 a month for Medicaid-eligible patients while a typical nursing facility charges between $6,000 and $9,000.

"There's no doubt in my mind that her agency has saved the state tons of money; she's the biggest case management company out there," said Kurt Sato, a social worker at Kaiser Permanente Hawaii, who says he has worked with Abel for years. "Gigi has been taking on a lot of different cases that might have ended up at nursing facilities and she's been able to manage them in the community at half the price."

Abel attributes the company's growth success to following her passion, which is instilled in her employees.

Her small staff has the same vision, which has everything to do with making people's lives better, she said. Abel plans to expand services to Maui within the next two months and eventually pass the business on to her employees, she said.

Reach Kristen Sawada at 955-8036 or ksawada@bizjournals.com.

© 2003 American City Business Journals Inc.